politics | Schools Week

Is having a go at northern schools part of Michael Wilshaw’s job description?

Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw yesterday criticised schools in the north west – but was he within his remit to do so? I obsess about a few things. Clean and dry kitchen worktops, how to perfectly poach an egg (I’m a cling-film strategy guy and don’t mind split infinitives) and, more recently, brilliant job […]

The feminism A-level debacle shows how biased we are about ‘best thinkers’

Women have been thinking, campaigning and contributing to politics throughout history, just as men have. It is therefore self-evident that the A-level syllabus should reflect this You couldn’t make it up. The Department for Education revises the specification for A-level politics, somehow manages to reduce the prominence of women within the new syllabus, triggers an […]

Editorial: Nicky Morgan needs to change the record on times tables check

Once upon a decade ago, I told my friend that if a DJ at a regular event we ran continued to play rubbish music I would be forced to take over myself. Only, I didn’t send the text to my friend. I sent it (accidentally) to the DJ. He flounced and I was left sheepishly […]

Year in review: a headteacher’s perspective on 2015

It’s all very different from the Michael Gove years (and they weren’t great), with layers of “extra things” now applied without much thought You can tell it’s Christmas because I’ve sorted my end-of-year quiz for my last year 11 class. Working with teenagers every day is the best thing about this job. But the system […]

You’re not the ‘mastery’ of me

The masculine narrative of current education reformers won’t lead to freedom. It is infiltrating teachers’ consciousness; changing perceptions of who they are as teachers, what they stand for and what they do. I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about the rise of a peculiarly masculine narrative within British education. Not everyone liked it. […]

‘No one agrees on anything in education – can we sort that out, please?’

Planning an education conference led Heidi Williams to question whether ever-shifting policy at the whim of ministers was really best for the nation’s children. In media partnership with Schools Week, the Politics in Education Summit will consider, could there be a better way? My background is as an organiser of Summits. At these events […]

‘Extending childcare must not become another burden on schools’

Extending out-of-hours childcare is a good idea in principle – but the government needs to clarify its proposals, including the age range it has in mind and who will foot the bill There has been a lot of discussion at the Conservative conference this week about the importance of giving young people the skills and […]

Finding NiMo’s sparkle is easy. Her policies less so.

Anyone who ever endured the pain of sweating over a piece of work only to have it disappear off the computer at the last minute will have empathy for Nicky Morgan this week. Toiling hard, she was the government minister with the most number of fringe events at the Conservative party’s annual conference. As I […]